How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
by Behind Emerald Eyes
Summary: One boy, One girl, two bets, one well kept secret!
1. Once Upon A Time

Disclaimer: OMG IT'S NOT MINE! GASP!!!

As James looked out of the bushes behind the lake, he watched Lily Evans, seventh year beauty queen.  Her bright auburn hair was flowing behind her as she read her book.  He couldn't see from his place in the bushes, but her green almond shaped eyes twinkled every time she looked up.

"James, what are you doing down there?" Sirius asked him loudly, too loudly.

"AH!" James tried to make his yell of surprise sound manly, but failed.

Sirius bent over his knees laughing and pointing at James.  James gave him a scowl of disapproval and got up off the warm ground.  He brushed his uniform off and straightened his tie.

"What was that for, Sirius?" James asked, making sure his head boy badge was showing.

Sirius eyed it wearily, "I just wanted to ask you something."

James nodded, signaling him to go on.

"Well, do you know when the next ball is yet?  I can't wait!" Sirius rubbed his hands together impatiently.

"Sirius, it's only the first week of school and Lily and I haven't even discussed when the prefect meetings are going to be!  I think you need to get a hold of yourself."

They began walking along at a moderate pace; their shoes picking up dew that the morning sun had failed to spot.  James smiled as he noticed he was absentmindedly staring at Lily again. 

"Well, Sirius, I'm off to talk to Lily.  I need to discuss the schedule," he grinned and walked in the direction of Lily.

As Sirius saw James walking towards Lily, he saw a friend who had lost himself in glory.  He thought James was lost in himself.  This new Head Boy thing had gone to his head.

"Lily?"

The red haired girl looked up almost immediately.  She quickly realized it was James and her eyes narrowed.  Her green eyes still sparkled, as if she was hiding something.  Of course it was always hard for James to tell anything about Lily; she was somewhat special.

"What do you want, Potter?" Lily snapped at him.

James looked at her with a kind look on his face, "I merely wanted to discuss the schedule for the Prefect meetings.  Maybe tomorrow at five?"

"Err, sure.  How about in your dormitory?  You won't be late that way," she smirked.

Knowing this last comment was an insult, James merely nodded and walked away.  He knew she had won the battle, but James knew he would win the war.

He got back to the Gryffindor common room in time to see Sirius arguing with Remus.  James was curious so he decided he would step in.

"I tell you James can get any girl in this school to fall for him in less than a week!" Sirius yelled.

Remus grinned and shook his head, "I daresay, my friend, that James has failed to get one girl so far throughout his six years here."

"Who would that be?" James asked, stepping in.

"Lily Evans," Remus and Sirius said in unison.

James nodded and his evil smirk gained control of his face.  He was having all sorts of memories about her.  Some were good, like the time in first year when she helped him with homework.  Some were bad.  He dared not think about how many of those he had. 

"I can get her to fall in love with me within eight days," he whispered, a galleon twirling through his fingers.

Sirius eyed it with greed, rather like a wolf about to bounce on its prey.  He then looked up at James.

"You willing to bet on that?" he asked suspiciously.

James nodded and tossed the galleon at him.  Sirius caught it and shook James' hand, his smirk filled with secrets. 

(Meanwhile…)

"He was staring at me, wasn't he?" Lily quickly asked her friend, Melissa as the Marauders were walking away.

Melissa nodded.

 "You can't wait to go up there and find HIM in the shower can you?"

A look of surprise overflowed Lily's face.  Of course that was part of her prank, but not exactly how she wanted to start a relationship with James.  Lily had been meaning to talk to him about it for two years, but never found the courage to.  She didn't think the hottest guy in seventh year would ever like her.

Kimberly, Lily's best friend, even though she was black, yelled at her suddenly, "LILY!  You're request for a Hogwarts magazine has been accepted!"

Lily's eyes nearly popped right out of her head.  She never took that request seriously.  After all, she had made it on the first day when she had a small talk with Professor Dumbledore about her classes.  Lily smiled at the thought of being in charge for once.  Everything was coming together nicely so far this year. 

"Okay, we're going to need some topics.  Let's have a meeting in the room of requirement in about…oh, an hour or so.  I'll meet everyone there.  Until then, Kimberly, you're in charge of getting the positions filled!" Lily ran off in the direction of the castle.

"Does that mean I'm the editor or something?" but Lily didn't hear her.

She passed through at least a thousand corridors before she came to what she thought was the Headmaster's office entrance.  It was a spectacular sculpture of a phoenix made in white marble.  Its wings spread out majestically as if ready for flight and its beak open as if making a call.  The phoenix's eyes were what startled Lily the most.  Its eyes were made of rubies that sparkled like a never-ending fire.  The great marble phoenix was atop a three-foot pillar.  It was truly amazing.

"Chocolate Pansy."

The phoenix flapped its wings once and then curled them up near its body.  Lowering its head, the entire statue moved aside.  The great marble slab behind it slowly scrapped the floor in order to move out of the way of the staircase that was now being formed by extra blocks of stone on the walls.  The path was dark, but not dark enough to be damp.  Every once in a while, there was a torch lighting a certain area.  Lily could tell Dumbledore had put much thought into this.

Quietly ambling up the long stairway, she thought about how much it seemed like it was the hallway of a dark witch or wizard.  She quickly shook the thought from her mind and began to walk a little faster.  She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a window up ahead.  Running up the last few steps, Lily saw Professor Dumbledore standing in front of a large Oakwood door. 

"I heard you coming," he smiled and opening the door, walked into his office.

Lily followed in after him, closing the door slowly, letting it creak a bit. 

"Please, sit down.  I've been anxious to hear what ideas you have."

Lily nodded and sat in a fluffy red chair, "I was thinking about including gossip, horoscopes, short stories, advice, and some little activities with prizes and things."

Dumbledore nodded as he spoke to her, "Indeed.  Did Kimberly tell you the conditions?"

Lily shook her head and pressed her lips together.

"Whatever you do, you must not put anyone else in any sort of situation.  By that I mean blackmail and sort of things like that.  Do you understand?  Being in charge of something that has the power to change people's perspectives is a large responsibility to a seventeen year old.  I do believe you will handle it brilliantly."  Dumbledore smiled as he finished.

Lily nodded slowly, "I understand Professor."  She looked at her watch and gasped, "I'm almost late!  I'll let you know when the first issue is coming out!"

Lily ran back down the stairs, through all the corridors, and up one set of stairs.  Standing in front of an over polished door with a slick brass handle.  _Melissa must have thought of what we needed._ She thought. 

She opened the door slowly and saw all her friends and a few stragglers sitting on three huge red couches facing her.  Looking around the room, Lily noticed the walls were lined with light Oakwood with bookcases overflowing with magazines and books.  In front of her was a large wooden chair with red silk lining.

"Oh my!  Who did this?" she asked looking at everyone in the highly lit room.

A small petite girl with long blonde hair spoke up, "We all did.  Of course, we had to ask James Potter how it worked, but we managed."

Lily frowned at the thought of her friends needing help from James, but on the inside she smiled.   He was so kind underneath every bit of conceitedness.  Silently giggling to herself, she sat down in the chair in front of her.

"Hmm…maybe we should go around and introduce ourselves," Melissa thought aloud.

Lily nodded and started off, "As you probably all know, I'm Lily Evans.  I am the editor of the paper and I will be supervising everything that goes on within this room." She looked at Melissa to signal her to start.

As the people around the room named themselves, Lily thought of what kind of advice columns she could add.  People always thought she was good at giving advice.  Maybe she should add some humor in just for kicks.  She thought better of it and tuned back in as the last person, the only guy in the group, said a few things.

"Yes, well, I'm Mack.  I'm only in sixth year, though," lowering his voice down to a whisper, almost sounding ashamed, "and I'm gay…"

Lily nodded and smiled, "Don't worry about it. None of us are the kind of people that look down on you. We respect your decisions." She paused for a moment, thinking, "Hmm." and with that she began naming off the category each person would be writing in.  She had left the advice column to herself thinking she could do something special with it.

Four dissembled magazines and an hour later, Melissa took Lily to the side of the room.  Even though it wasn't the darkest corner, it was dark enough so that no one could even see their lips move. 

"Lily, I have a challenge for you." She stifled a giggle.

Lily grinned and nodded, "Oh, do tell."

"I bet you one galleon that you can't do the ten worst mistakes women make when dealing with their boyfriends."

"Uh, that's a little easy don't you think?"

Melissa nodded, "That's where James Potter comes in."

Lily narrowed her eyes and grinned, "He likes me, if you can't tell.  It'll be easy to do them all."

"Indeed.  But I'm giving you ten days to make those mistakes and lose him."

"I'll take you up on that bet," Lily grinned with confidence, but she had no idea how deep this bet was going to get.

A/N- That took me all summer to write! I wanted it to be perfect, can't you tell?  Plus I procrastinated, so that made it ten times worse!  Well, I just thought I would give out a special thanks to Annapooh and Minerva. (wink wink)  Well, as you know, I love reviews, flames always help me more, and they give me something to talk about.


	2. The Attic's Not Empty Yet

Disclaimer: See first chapter

"Sh! Sh! She's waking up!" Lily could barely hear her friend, Melissa, as she opened her eyes to all her friends standing around her bed.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, "What's going on?"

The girls around her giggled and whispered to each other almost silently. Lily's eyes were still a bit blurred from just waking up, that she could just barely make out something red and blue at the foot of her bed.

She touched the object lightly with her left hand. It felt velvety smooth, but it was not velvet. Whatever it was that was blue, was obviously something paper, like a note.

She gently picked up the red object and when her eyes had finally cleared, she saw a bundle of roses wrapped in an enchanted light pink mist. The mist had no wet feel, it was just eye candy. Laying them gently on the small table by her bed, she picked up the blue envelope, as she now saw.

After she had fully opened the envelope, the note inside slowly floated out to eye level and unfolded itself.

_Dear Lily, I know we are not the greatest of friends, but please accept this as my apology for the past six years. I would just prefer us to be acquaintances rather than enemies. I'm not asking much, just for a little respect. I may not be the brightest star in the sky, but I am surely not the dullest. Just remember our meeting at five o'clock this evening. –J. H. P._

As she finished, the note ripped itself into small pieces then burned itself in a small flame. Lily was still in disbelief as she watched the flame burn, flicker, and die in a puff of smoke, without even leaving a burn mark on her bed sheets.

"What did it say?!" Melissa asked excitedly.

Lily simply shook her head and pulled her covers back. She put her feet on the floor and stood up slowly, not wanting to fall down at the time. Her friends cleared a path for her and quickly went back to their business, knowing they weren't going to get any information out of her.

-Meanwhile-

"JAMES! JAMES! JAMES! PRONGSIEPOOH!"

James sat up quickly only to hit his head on Sirius', "Ouch! What is it you want?"

Sirius stared at him blankly, as if waiting for James to answer his own question, "It got _really_ quiet in the girls dorm. I heard it!"

"If it was so quiet, you wouldn't be able to hear it," James said blankly while rubbing his forehead lightly.

Sirius looking at James' head before he got off his bed and walked to the sink room wondered quietly, _Does James remember that note he sent Lily?_

James stood up and looked at the closed bathroom door, "It's Saturday, right?"

Sirius merely nodded while looking at James closely. It had been a while since Sirius had seen James so serious. It was just getting to the point to where it bugged him a bit.

"Hey, have you thought of any cool pranks lately?" Sirius asked excitedly.

James sighed and shook his head, "No."

"Hey, Prongs! Are you up?" James heard Remus yell from the bathroom.

"Yes, and I need to use the space you are currently occupying!"

Sirius stared at James, "Wow! You used big boy words!" And with that a large grin spread over Sirius' face as James tackled him to the floor with a series of playful punches. Not intending to hurt anyone, James sometimes didn't realize how hard he was actually hitting Sirius. It did not seem to matter anyway, Sirius was tough and strong.

Remus walked out of the bathroom just as James and Sirius had gotten up off of the floor. His jeans were worn and had holes where his knees were, but that didn't stop the other two Marauders from tackling him down to the floor in a three way match.

-Meanwhile-

Just as she finished brushing her teeth, Lily heard a loud thump come from the boys' bathroom. Sighing as she quickly put on her muggle clothes, the thump became more consistent and she ever heard laughter. Lily rolled her eyes and ran out of the bathroom, now fully clothed, and made a beeline for the boy's dorm.

"Lily?!" Melissa cried as she followed after her hot tempered friend.

Just as Lily flung the door wide open, Sirius stood right in front of her, a smug look on his face, "Hiya, Lillers! I sure did miss you!"

He swept Lily into a tight bear hug and swung her around for what seemed like forever. Listening to Melissa giggle the whole time, Lily finally kicked Sirius in the shin before he put her down.

Just as her feet touched the floor, she lost her balance and fell down in a heap, extremely dizzy. Everything was spinning, therefore she couldn't tell if it was James or Remus who had picked her up and put her on the nearest bed.

"Bloody hell, Sirius. What was that about?" Lily asked slowly.

Melissa giggle again as Sirius replied, "Dunno."

Forgetting why she had come, Lily closed her eyes and tempted herself to go to sleep. She was quite close, too, that is until she felt someone sit down on the bed. Lily groaned out her dislike and rolled over, away from whoever was sitting.

"Lily, did you get that letter I sent you this morning?" James asked her apprehensively.

Lily nodded, her eyes now closed. She was remembering Melissa's so called dare. Lily grinned as an idea sparked in her head.

Opening her eyes slowly, Lily smiled ever so sweetly at James and said, "Of course I did, James."

James smiled nervously and asked another question, "Do you agree?"

Lily nodded and looked at him for a brief moment before she embraced him in a tight hug. James, not expecting a thing, merely chuckled with relief as he hugged her back.

A/N- Oh, no. What's Lily doing now?!?! Not eve I know! (YET!) FWAH!

To everyone who reviewed the first chapter: I kept going back and reading the reviews over and over for no apparent reason. I thank you for making me hurry up!


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